>You can kill someone fairly easily in basketball.

no hitting of any sort is legal in basketball. laying someone out is legally built in to hockey. liberties are taken.

>I never understood that argument. .

it helps when you arent arguing against it before thinking about it.

>Basketball players don't fight because they don't
>fight, because they know they'll be (culturally)
>punished for it much worse.

no one fights because no one has a reason to fight. undercutting a dunker WOULD be incredibly dangerous. luckily it happens at a miniscule fraction of the rate of stick penalties in the NHL.